Looking Back

It's been one month now that I have been home and in the states. I've had scarcely a moment to breathe since then, with working on clinics, taking on a third job and trying to get things going with my club for the fall. I remember feeling like I was really busy all the time when I was in Germany, but now I look back and think how easy it was just to walk around and enjoy each day for all its new sights and sounds in comparison to these past four weeks which have been insane.

For me, going to Germany and studying abroad for a second time was an amazing experience. I gained a lot of self confidence in living in a foreign country and interacting with people from a different culture and perspective from my own. I will never forget staying with my two host students, who were amazing individuals and made me feel right at home even though I was 5000 miles away. To me, getting the opportunity to live with someone rather than just trucking around from hotel to hotel was an integral part of my enjoyment of the trip, and although I would love to go back and visit Germany or Europe again some day, it's just not the same if you don't get that full cultural immersion. That's what I really went for - the green countryside and getting the opportunity to see that there are other crazy people out there who also want to spend four years (or more) of their lives learning about veterinary medicine and putting everything else on hold. Admittedly, I think those guys over there have a lot more fun with their education and they certainly know how to relax better - but it could have just been a slow time for them or they were making sacrifices academically to be gracious hosts.

I also enjoyed getting to visit all the major pharmaceutical companies over there and getting a sort of sneak peek at the behind the scenes science that makes medicine possible. I have always felt that medicine is a culmination of all the sciences put together and that as medical professionals we get to put some of the most amazing research and hard work of others in to practice, and it was good to see how those researchers start from the ground up to make products that we use in our daily lives to help animals. The main feeling I got from them however, was that industry is a nice later-career move that makes sense after practicing for some time, honing your technicals skills, and seeing what kind of improvements and research need to be done in the field to keep it advancing. I have always considered a career in industry or public health (especially) as a viable option after graduation, but now I can see that it seems, at least in Europe, that getting some practical skills and hands-on knowledge of the private side of practice first can only help you be better at those jobs.

The trip was everything I expected it to be. For me, and perhaps I am a little jaded in saying so, since I have both studied abroad before (and lived with a host family) and travelled to Europe on several occasions, I was not surprised or blown away by much. As always, I find that people are willing to help you out in a pinch if you are gracious and polite, and that everyone is just as curious about you as you are about them. The best way to communicate if often by pointing fingers and smiling and nodding your head, and you have to be flexible because you never know what kind of unexpected event will throw all your plans out of whack. For me however, the largest kink in my plans actually took me to the place that I found the most fascinating - Dresden - and led me to the story that just amazed me beyond belief - the Fraunkirche and how it survived the DDR and almost being made in to a parking lot after surviving three days of firebombing and sheltering Dresdeners from the Allies' wrath in World War II.

Looking back on it all, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Nothing beats immersing yourself in a new place for a few weeks - enough to get a little homesick and enough to get a good picture of how another culture lives and plays - and even though the jet lag was something awful, it was worth it. I hope certainly in the future international opportunities will open up for me so that I can once again spend some time learning how it's done in other places, because that's where you see new ideas and things that you never though of before that you can take home with you and change the way you operate. Certainly for me, Germany was a lesson in being flexible and learning to relax and not worry when I couldn't change the situation in front of me. It's something as a type A I've never been good at and it's something I will need to practice for the rest of my life. It's trips like these that help you realize there's more around you than yourself and that in this day and age, being able to cope internationally is a skill that will only be more and more handy as the years go on. The experience was invaluable and I am glad that I went, survived, and came home to mull it over and share with others.